Apartheid in South Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Apartheid was a political and social system in South Africa while it was under white minority rule. This
was in use in the 20th century, from 1948 to 1994.[1] Racial segregation had been used for centuries but
the new policy started in 1948 was stricter and more systematic.
In the system, the people of South Africa were divided by their race and the races were forced to live
apart from each other. There were laws that kept up the racial separation. The system of apartheid in
South Africa was banned in 1994. The last president under apartheid was Frederik Willem de Klerk.
[2]
After this, Nelson Mandela became the first black president.[3][4] Both were awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize for their efforts.[5] Today, the term apartheid is sometimes used to speak about similar systems in
other countries.
Contents
[hide]

1How apartheid worked

2Aim of apartheid

3Related pages

4Notes

5Other websites

How apartheid worked[change | change source]

Sign from South Africa during apartheid. This sign meant that only white people were allowed in this area.

During apartheid, people were divided into four racial groups and kept apart by law.[6] The system was
used to deny many rights of non-white people, mainly black people who lived in South Africa in the
beginning of the apartheid times. The laws allowed the white people to keep the black people out of
certain areas. Black people had to carry special papers (passes) or have permission to live and work in
particular areas. The government separated mixed communities and forcibly moved many people.
Many laws were made, for example: people of different races were not allowed to marry each other;
black people could not own land in white areas or vote.
The United Nations did not agree with the South African government's apartheid policies. [7] There were
protests in South Africa, like in Sharpeville in 1960[8] and in Soweto in 1976.[9] After the Sharpeville
Massacre, the UN tried to get South Africa out of the UN in 1974. France, the United States, and Britain
stopped that from happening. The Soweto uprising started because Africans were forced to study some

subjects at school in Afrikaans. Many black people did not like Afrikaans because it was the language of
the apartheid government and they did not understand it. [10]
Finally, after much struggle, the South African government ended apartheid in 1994. After that, equal
rights were shared among both black and whites in law. Nelson Mandela became president when
apartheid was ended.
Although black South Africans were granted equal rights as far as the law was concerned since 1994,
there is still economic inequality between blacks and whites. In 2012, South Africa did its first census in
over ten years. It found that the average black family earned one-sixth (about 17%) of what the average
white family earned.[11] "These figures tell us that at the bottom of the rung is the black majority who
continue to be confronted by deep poverty, unemployment and inequality, President Jacob Zuma said
when the results came out. [11]

Sign at a beach: This beach has been reserved for white people only.

Aim of apartheid[change | change source]

The aim of apartheid was to separate the people of South Africa into small independent nations. The
black ones were called Bantustans. South Africa said they were independent countries and
exchanged ambassadors but other countries did not. The National Party government did not want to
spend a lot of money on this project. Also, they wanted to keep the majority of South Africa's land for
white people, especially the richest places, like the gold mines of Johannesburg. They wanted black
men to work in these mines for little money but their families had to live far away.

Related pages[change | change source]

Race (sociology)

Racial segregation

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

Notes[change | change source]

1.

Jump up http://mlkkpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_apartheid_1948_1994/

2.

Jump up Abegunrin, Olayiwola Africa in Global Politics in the Twenty-First Century: A PanAfrican Perspective Palgrave MacMillan New York, New York 2009 page 20

3.

Jump up http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/nelson_mandela/

4.

Jump up Lockard, Craig A. Societies, Networks, and Transitions, Volume C since 1750 Second
Edition Wadsworth Cengage Learning page 889

5.

Jump up Cohen, David Elliot; John D. Battersby Nelson Mandela: A Life in Photographs Sterling
Publishing Co Inc. 2009 page 143

6.

Jump up Schaefer, Richard T. editor Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society Volume 1
Sage Publications Inc. 2008 page 83

7.

Jump up http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html